Johanna Mårtensson-Orgel Visual Sound Installation

At Design Interviews

Interview with Johanna Mårtensson : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. Johanna Mårtensson : When working together as set and costume designer (Johanna) and composer and performer (Ida) with a dance piece at Cullberg balletten/Riksteatern we discovered a common interest in everyday objects and unexpected materials.
A curiosity in what different materials and objects can achieve if put together or used in an another way than it is meant to. To lift the seemingly ordinary to something larger. We wanted to develop our interest in working with interactive objects - to invite the visitors to be performers and activators of the room, the sound and the objects and to find the objects becoming something else when used. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. Johanna Mårtensson : As any artists, we want to touch and communicate with people. To open our minds to abstraction in a playful and humorous way, to let go of logics and explanations and to view things from new angles.
We want to lift up simple man made objects, putting them together in unexpected ways, transform them to something larger, approach them from new angles, explore the sound they produce and experiment with different light.
We want to find a non-hierarchic way of collaborating both with one another and with the participants. Allowing ourself to think abstract, surprising one another, exceeding our limits, trying out shapes and sounds out of everyday materials.
Our intention is to create a unique and common experience within a safe space. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. Johanna Mårtensson : We want to tour with this piece, we would like to try it out in different rooms, in different versions and with different audiences. It will be different every time, since the audience creates the music it will become a new piece as soon as someone enters the room, we want to explore this further. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. Johanna Mårtensson : We had an emryo to the ideá earlier. But apart from that about a month. .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. Johanna Mårtensson : We did it out of pure interest. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. Johanna Mårtensson : We will produce it ourselves. .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. Johanna Mårtensson : A curiosity in what different materials and objects can achieve if put together or used in an another way than it is meant to. To lift the seemingly ordinary to something larger. We wanted to develop our interest in working with interactive objects - to invite the visitors to be performers and activators of the room, the sound and the objects and to find the objects becoming something else when used. .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. Johanna Mårtensson : We where inspired by an Organ, described in the dictionary as a keyboard and wind instrument, where the sound is produced through airwaves that puts in oscillation the air in a pipe.
We where also inspired by the room where the organ is often placed - the church, and of any spiritual rituals. One of the instruments/sculptures, was inspired by an african tribal costume, you could step inside it and shake it as a maracas. .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. Johanna Mårtensson : Everyone. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. Johanna Mårtensson : Orgel is the swedish word for Organ, described in the dictionary like this:
Orgel /’orˌjɛl/ – keyboard and wind instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes. .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. Johanna Mårtensson : At first sight you might think there is some advanced lightning within the plastic tubes or that it looks like led light tubes. But it is ordinary spotlights that lit up the organs/sculptures, that are made of cheap plastis, pvc and electric tubes hanging on bike wheels and connected to various toys that make different sounds when blowing in the tubes. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. Johanna Mårtensson : Orgel – a project by Ida Lundén and Johanna Mårtensson
Lighting design, Fylkingen: Sören Runolf
Photographer: José Figueroa
Graphic design: Tomas Jönsson
.Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. Johanna Mårtensson : At first sight you might think there is some advanced lightning within the plastic tubes or that it looks like led light tubes. But it is ordinary spotlights that lit up the organs/sculptures, that are made of cheap plastis, pvc and electric tubes hanging on bike wheels and connected to various toys that make different sounds when blowing in the tubes. .Frank Scott: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?. Johanna Mårtensson : We where also inspired by the room where the organ is often placed - the church, and of any spiritual rituals. One of the instruments/sculptures, was inspired by an african tribal costume, you could step inside it and shake it as a maracas. .Frank Scott: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?. Johanna Mårtensson : Our challenge is to create an open space where the audience feels free to participate if they want to, or just to watch and listen if they want to, without loosing the attention to the music. .Frank Scott: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?. Johanna Mårtensson : We want to reach a wide range of audiences over the world. (Johanna Mårtensson wan the Platinum A Design Award 2012, and it led to interesting exhibitions and press apperances.) .Frank Scott: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?. Johanna Mårtensson : We developed our way of collaborating with each other in a non hierarchic way, to be allowing ourself to think abstract, surprising one another, exceeding our limits. .